Bert White, the high-energy manager of the firm’s West Palm Beach, Fla., complex of four branches and some 175 brokers, is leaving after 16 years with Morgan Stanley and predecessor Smith Barney, according to several well-placed sources.

White, 48, has been replaced at the Florida complex by Tim Byrnes, who lost his role as Southeast regional manager in the reorganization, which eliminated two of Morgan Stanley’s eight sales regions. Byrnes’ former job has been assumed by Michael Struckman, head of the brokerage’s now-defunct Northwest region.

White, who began his brokerage career in 1992 at A.G. Edwards & Sons, declined to comment. Byrnes did not return calls for comment.

Morgan Stanley executives told managers in a conference call on Wednesday night that only two of the firm’s approximately 72 complex managers have lost their posts as a result of the regional reorganization, according to a broker who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The changes were not motivated by cost-cutting and will not affect administrative and other support functions, the managers were told.

While White may have been sacrificed to make room for a more senior manager, some current and former Morgan Stanley managers said his superiors may have learned that he has been considering offers from rival firms.

“He was very popular,” said a former Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney executive who previously oversaw White. “There will be competition to get him.”

The West Palm Beach complex that White managed generates annual revenue of around $150 million, and include several top-producing ‘Chairman’s Club’ brokers who were supportive of White, according to two other sources familiar with his business.

White, who slyly displayed his competitive spirit in this from 2014, “was one of the last Smith Barney managers standing,” said Michael Maurer, a former complex manager with Morgan Stanley who is now chairman of D.C.-based advisory firm Steward Partners.

A Morgan Stanley spokesperson said 45% of the firm’s complex managers had been with Smith Barney.

Morgan Stanley has consolidated about 350 branches since taking over the former Citigroup unit in 2009, leaving it with 601 at the end of 2016.

While this is unfortunate for both Mr. White’s FAs who really like him as well as Bert himself, he will likely find another job relatively soon. Sadly, most firms are, in the final analysis, all about the bottom line and not about the loyal employees who have worked for them, often for years. That doesn’t make companies evil, but it should serve as a wake-up call to those who work for them. You have to take care of yourself first, because that is what big firms do and will continue doing.

This is what happens when the don’t buy any paper clips McKinsey Consultants take over a firm. It is a culture of what can we cut next because we have no idea how to grow, motivate or inspire a sales force. Branch and Complex Manager are not highly thought of by the third floor in Purchase and are viewed as replaceable and interchangeable. What the firm needs is a Managing Director of Common Sense. Until then entrepreneurial forward thinking growth oriented Complex Managers will continue to leave the organization by either choice or by design. The leadership of MS that has never written a ticket, opened up an account, or god forbid dealt with a difficult client, will continue to focus on cost cutting, and cutting FA COMP. Its the only thing they know how to do.

I worked with Bert for many years and is a true class act. He cared for the Advisors and was focused on growing his branch and doing the right thing. Hope my current company picks him up in South Florida and we see a large move of his MSSB Advisors join him.

One more body in the Smith Barney purge. At the time of the merger there was no comparison between skills and experience of SB managers and Dean Witter legacy leaders. SB managers ran big businesses that were wildly profitable. They were the best of the best having been though the Darwinian merger cycles of Shearson-Lehman-Hutton-Smith Barney. Conversely, Witter (MS) managers ran product shops that were dominated by average quality FAs. At MS there had been no competition to be “the manager” as there had not been a retail merger in 25 years! Though natural selection Barney branch managers and senior managers initially dominated the merged firms of Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney. Since the “retirement” of Charley Johnston there has been a somewhat endless insurrection by the Morgan survivor managers getting even for their decade of subordination. What we are seeing now is the last vestige of them v us. The most vulnerable to departure FAs at MS today are the legacy Smith Barney advisors. Their cultural tie is full severed.